According to Reuters, the head of the Volkswagen Group’s US company said that the Volkswagen brand is weighing a new factory in North America to produce electric vehicles for the US market.
Volkswagen Group’s new US CEO Scott Keogh said that the Volkswagen brand plans to launch a new electric car, priced between 30,000 and 40,000 US dollars (about 200,000-270,000 yuan), is expected to be available in 2020.
Part of the reason for Volkswagen’s plan to invest heavily in electric vehicles is that it will compete with Tesla. Tesla currently has the largest share of the US electric vehicle market, but in the next two years, German automakers and other companies will launch a series of new models. Keogh said that for the public, although it is behind Tesla, it is not too late to occupy the US market, because the US market provides “a huge opportunity, the market timing is quite perfect.”
According to reports, Volkswagen Group will invest nearly 44 billion euros (about 50 billion US dollars) to develop electric vehicles, self-driving cars and new mobile travel services by 2023, while exploring cooperation with American automaker Ford Motor. Keogh said that in order to meet the production schedule for 2020, the new electric car will initially be produced abroad, but will be produced in the new plant. As for the site, Volkswagen’s existing plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, may be an option, both in Passat and Atlas.
Post time: Dec-03-2018